Clinical Characteristics of Ocular Sarcoidosis: A Population-Based Study 1976–2013

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To characterize the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of ocular involvement in patients with systemic sarcoidosis.

Methods: An inception cohort of patients with systemic sarcoidosis in 1976–2013 in Olmsted County, Minnesota, was identified based on comprehensive individual medical record review. Medical records of those patients were then reviewed for ocular involvement.

Results: A total of 345 incident cases of systemic sarcoidosis were identified. Ocular involvement occurred in 23 patients (7%). The most common ocular disease was uveitis (61%) followed by dry eye disease, conjunctival nodule, episcleritis, anterior scleritis, and conjunctivitis. Anterior uveitis was the most common type of uveitis (71%). The visual outcome of uveitis was favorable with only one patient lost three or more lines of VA during follow-up and had VA of less than 20/200 at last visit.

Conclusion: Ocular involvement occurred in 7% of sarcoidosis patients. Uveitis was the most common type of ocular disease.

Keywords:

• Cohort study
• epidemiology
• granuloma
• sarcoidosis
• uveitis

DECLARATION OF INTEREST

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

FUNDING

This study was made possible using the resources of the Rochester Epidemiology Project, which is supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01 AG034676, and CTSA Grant Number UL1 TR000135 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

P. U. : 1. Conception and design 2. Acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data 3. Drafting of the manuscript 4. Statistical analysis; A. A. T.: 1. Conception and design 2. Acquisition and interpretation of data 3. Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content; C. S. C.: 1. Conception and design 2. Analysis and interpretation of data 3. Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content 4. Statistical analysis; E. L. M.: 1. Conception and design 2. Acquisition and interpretation of data 3. Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content 4. Supervision; W. M. S.: 1. Conception and design 2. Acquisition and interpretation of data 3. Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content 4. Supervision. P. U. and C. S. C. had full access to all of the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Additional information

Funding

This study was made possible using the resources of the Rochester Epidemiology Project, which is supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01 AG034676, and CTSA Grant Number UL1 TR000135 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.